The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

33 ISLANDS OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC.The disappearance of the fiords is also in many places due to another causethe o-eneral upheaval of the coast lands. On the northern seaboard recent shellsand drift-wood have been found over 200 feet above the present beach, andaccording to Olafsson and Talsson this upheaval is still going on at a tolerablyrapid rate. On the shores of the Breidi-FjorSr, in the north-west, the inhabitantspoint out a number of islands, islets, and rocks which made their appearancedurin"- the course of the last century. Amongst the deposits thus raised to thesurface are half-carbonised timbers embedded in the tufas and lavas, and stillfurnished with their leaves and cones, which certainly come from the ancientforests of the land, and which are known to the natives by the name ofsurturbrandur. As many as three successive layers of these fossil woods, indicatinga like number of forest growths, have been recognised by Olafsson and Palsson onthe same spot, including several stems 1 foot in diameter. In the surturbrandurof the south-west Steenstrup has recognised the foliage and seeds of ten speciesallied to those of Canada and New England, including conifers, the birch, willow,maple, elm, and tulip-tree. When these plants flourished in Iceland the climatewas certainly milder than at present, as seems also evident from the fossil molluscsassociated with these surturbrandur.Climate, Flora, and Fain v.Yet even the present climate is far less severe than might be supposed fromthe name of the island. The surrounding ' seas are constantly warmed by thecurrents from the tropics, whose mean temperature at Reykjavik is about 42° Fahr.Cooled by the neighbouring polar seas, the atmosphere is naturally colder than thewater, though still warmer than that of any other country under the sameparallel except Norway. The average climate of Reykjavik is the same as inCentral Russia or Nova Scotia, and even Grimsey, an islet within the arcticcircle to the north of Iceland, is temperate enough to be inhabitable.Nevertheless there is a marked contrast between the east and west of theisland, the latter being influenced by the warm tropical currents, the former bythe cold polar stream. And it is remarkable that the southern shores are colderthan the northern. During severe seasons masses of floating ice have often driftedto these shores, bearing with them the white bear. But these animals never pass thesummer in the island, and after having ravaged the flocks, again embark on thefloating masses, often swimming great distances to reach them. As many asthirteen have been killed in a single year.The variations of the polar stream, and the irregular arrival of the drift ice,render the climate extremely changeable, probably more so than that of anyother country. The temperature varies at times from 5° to 6° on the west,and probably still more on the north and north-east coasts. The most disagreeableseason is spring, owing to the fierce snow-storms from the north-east. Thewinters are long, and rendered more trying by the long nights than by thecold, although the western skies are often lit up by the northern lights. In